Free Before the Frost by Henning Mankell

secretive by nature. If you don’t leave her alone she can get very angry. Didn’t you know that about her?”
    â€œNo. She doesn’t have a cell phone either?”
    â€œShe’s one of the few people who’s still holding out,” Henrietta said. “Even I have one. In fact, I don’t see the need for the old-fashioned kind anymore. But that’s neither here nor there. No, Anna doesn’t have a cell phone.”
    Henrietta stopped as if she had suddenly thought of something. Linda looked around the room. Someone had been crying. It hadn’t occurred to her that it might have been Anna until Henrietta asked her if that was what she was doing, looking for her here. But it couldn’t have been Anna, she thought. Why would she be crying? She’s not a person who cries very much. Once when we were girls she fell off the jungle gym and hurt herself. She cried that time, but it’s the only time I remember. Even when we both fell in love with Tomas I was the one who cried; she was just angry.
    Linda looked at Henrietta, who was standing in a beam of light in the middle of the polished wooden floor. She had an angular profile, just like Anna.
    â€œI don’t get visitors very often,” she said suddenly, as if that was what had been foremost in her mind. “People avoid me just as I avoid them. I know they think I’m eccentric. That’s what comes of living alone out in the country with only a greyhound for company, composing music no one wants to listen to. It doesn’t help matters that I’m still legally married to the man who left me twenty-four years ago.”
    Linda sensed a tone of bitterness and loneliness in Henrietta’s voice.
    â€œWhat are you working on right now?”
    â€œPlease don’t feel you have to make polite conversation. Why
did you drop by? Was it really that you’re still worried about Anna?”
    â€œI borrowed her car. My grandfather used to live in these parts and I thought I would take a drive. I’m feeling a little bored these days.”
    â€œUntil you get to put on your uniform?”
    â€œYes.”
    Henrietta brought out a coffeepot and cups and set them on the table.
    â€œI don’t understand why an attractive girl like you would choose to become a police officer. Breaking up fights on the street, that’s what I imagine it to be. I know there must be other aspects to the job, but that’s what always comes to mind.”
    She poured the coffee.
    â€œBut perhaps you’re going to sit behind a desk,” she added.
    â€œNo, I’ve been assigned to a patrol car and will probably be doing a lot of the work you would expect. Someone has to be prepared to jump into the fray.”
    Henrietta leaned to the side with her hand tucked under her chin.
    â€œAnd that’s what you’re going to dedicate your life to?”
    Her comments put Linda on the defensive, as if she were in danger of being contaminated by Henrietta’s bitterness.
    â€œI don’t know what looks have got to do with it. I’m almost thirty and on good days I’m generally happy with how I look, but I’ve never dreamed of being Miss Sweden. But more to the point, what would happen to our society if there were no police? My dad is a policeman and I’ve never had any reason to be ashamed of him.”
    Henrietta shook her head.
    â€œI didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”
    Linda still felt angry. She felt a need to strike back, though she couldn’t really say why.
    â€œI thought I heard the sound of someone crying in here when I walked up to your house.”
    Henrietta smiled.
    â€œIt’s a recording I have. I’m working on a requiem and I mix my music with the sound of someone crying.”

    â€œI don’t even know what a requiem is.”
    â€œA funeral mass. That’s almost all I write these days.”
    Henrietta got up and walked over to the grand